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TIL Originally, Sid's character in Ice age (2002) was supposed to be a con-artist and a hustler, and there was a finished scene of the character conning some aardvark kids. His character was later changed to a talkative-clumsy sloth because the team felt the audience would have disliked him.

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PYw7n TIL in the early 1900’s, Idaho potatoes were used only for hog food until a railroad superintendent found that they were delicious when baked. Celebrity endorsements, a song and a 40ft potato shaped sign (with electric winking eyes) soon followed and the "baked" potato became mainstream fare.
wo09E TIL that the British reggae music group UB40 got their band name from an unemployment benefit form for people under 40 years of age in the United Kingdom.
rRLo TIL that Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (Zero Punctuation) was offered the chance to write the script for Duke Nukem Forever, but his script was rejected due to the fact that it was “too out there” and didn’t match Duke Nukem’s “tone”.
neQo7 TIL in the Middle Ages there was a belief animals understood the concept of morality and possessed rationality. They were summoned to court, put on trial for a variety of offenses, and given the same punishments as humans. Lawyers defended pigs, rats, and sheep. Even flies and slugs faced judgement.
LkANr TIL about survivorship bias and its application in the military. A statistician used the survivorship bias in his calculations when considering how to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. The military wanted to reinforce the areas where the bomber was shot up instead of looking where it wasn't hit.